1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to stringed musical instruments. In particular, the invention relates to a stringed musical instrument for connection to a computer to implement DSP modeling to allow for the emulation of a wide variety of selectable instruments.
2. Description of Related Art
Stringed instruments utilize vibrating strings to generate different tones, and more specifically, notes, which are simply particular tones. Tones or notes are sounds that repeat at a certain specific frequency and, when played in a particular order, create music.
Throughout the world, various cultures have created a multitude of different stringed instruments such as: guitars, mandolins, banjos, basses, violins, sitars, ukuleles, etc., to create music. Moreover, with the advent of electronics, many of these stringed instruments have now been electrified to operate in conjunction with an amplifier and speaker. One of the most common stringed instruments in use today is the guitar—in both its electric and acoustic forms. The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments in use today, and it spans a huge range of musical styles—e.g. rock, country, jazz, folk, etc.
As previously discussed, the vibrating string of a stringed instrument generates a musical tone or note, which is in turn a function of: the length of the string; the amount of tension on the string; the weight of the string; the shape and thickness of the body of the stringed instrument, etc. Generally, stringed instruments, and the guitar in particular, include a body having a bridge to which each of the strings are respectively mounted, a neck having frets and a nut or ‘zero’ fret, and a head having tuning pegs to which each of the strings are also respectively mounted. The length of the string is the distance between the bridge and the nut or ‘zero’ fret. The amount of tension on the string is determined by the winding of the tuning peg, which tightens and loosens the string (i.e. imparting tension) in order to tune the string to a certain note. In playing a stringed instrument, when a musician presses down on a string at a fret, the length of the string is changed and therefore its frequency is changed as well. The frets are spaced out so that the proper frequencies are produced when a string is held down at a given fret (and therefore the proper note is produced).
Looking at electrical stringed instruments, and utilizing an electric guitar as a particular example, to produce sound an electric guitar electronically senses the vibration of a string and generates an associated electrical signal and then routes the associated electric signal to an amplifier. The sensing generally occurs by utilizing electromagnetic pickups mounted under each of the strings of the guitar, respectively, in the guitars' body and neck, at different locations.
These electromagnetic pickups typically consist of a bar magnet wrapped with a coil of thousands of turns of fine wire. The vibrating steel strings of the electric guitar produce a corresponding vibration in the magnetic field of the electromagnetic pickup and therefore a current in the coil. This current represents the sound of the string at the location of the pickup and can be routed to an amplifier. Many electric guitars have two or three different magnetic pickups located at different points of the body and neck. Each magnetic pickup will have a distinctive sound, and multiple pickups can be paired, either in-phase or out, to produce additional variations. Thus, the electromagnetic pickup locations for particular types of electric guitars are a major factor in determining the “sound” associated with the particular electric guitar along with other factors.
Continuing with the guitar as an example, to recreate the full spectrum of classic guitar sounds, each with its own particular characteristics and nuances, a guitarist has traditionally been required to use many different guitars along with various classic amplifiers and different sound-effects processors. Alternatively, a guitarist may use one guitar equipped with a variety of preamps and/or signal-processing equipment that allows for varying degrees of compromised approximations of the desired classic sounds.
Guitars have been produced that, by various means, perform modeling functions to model the sounds of various other guitars. For example, previous modeling guitars have processed the individual strings of a guitar by means of outboard processing gear or by means of embedded processing electronics built into the guitar itself. Unfortunately, many of these previous attempts to provide a modeling guitar require the use of exotic cabling and/or specialized electronic processing equipment.